Fun Food Facts

I found these food facts on the internet. I thought they were fun - and curious. I have no idea if they are "for real" or not. You be the judge. Here goes:

• Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries
• The onion is named after a Latin word meaning large pearl
• Half of the world's population lives on a staple diet of rice
• "Fast Food" Isn't New! The remains of fast-food shops have been found in ancient ruins! Even ancient Greeks enjoyed take-out. The only thing that is new is the mass production, standard menus and recipes of fast-food "chains."
• Ice Cream Is Chinese Food! When the famous explorer Marco Polo returned to his homeland of Italy, from China in 1295, he brought back a recipe (among other things). The recipe was a Chinese recipe for a desert called "Milk Ice." However, Europeans substituted cream for the milk, and voila..."Ice Cream."
• In France, people eat approximately 500,000,000 snails per year
• Carrots Really Can Help You See In The Dark! Vitamin A is known to prevent "night blindness," and carrots are loaded with Vitamin A. So, why not load-up today!
• The first breakfast cereal ever produced was Shredded Wheat
• There are about 100,000 bacteria in one litre of drinking water. (Cindy says “YUCK!”)
• The Word "Salary" Comes From "Salt!" Salt, our oldest preservative, was extremely rare in the past. So rare, in fact, that it was often used as pay. Imagine...earning a couple of tablespoons of salt for a hard-days work. Today, salt is so common that restaurants give it away for free, and packaged food contains so much that it's far too easy to eat too much salt (salt is also known as "sodium"). Ever heard the saying “worth his salt”?
• Over 1,000 litres of beer are drunk in the House of Commons each week
• Sometimes frozen fruits and vegetables are more nutritious than fresh! The longer that fruits or vegetables sit around waiting to be sold or eaten, the more nutrients they lose. But fruits and vegetables grown for freezing are usually frozen right after they're picked. Therefore, they have less time to lose their nutrients.
• Instant coffee has been in existence since the middle of the eighteenth century
• The dish chop-suey does not come from China. It was created by Chinese immigrants in California
• Within 2 hours of standing in daylight, milk loses between half and two-thirds of its vitamin B content
• Have A Tomato With Your Burger! When a source of Vitamin C (orange, lemon, grapefruit, strawberry, tomato, potato, etc.) is eaten with meat or cooked dry beans, the body makes better use of the iron in the protein food.
• Bakers used to be fined if their loaves were under weight, so they used to add an extra loaf to every dozen, just in case -- hence, the expression "baker's dozen"
• It has been traditional to serve fish with a slice of lemon since the Middle Ages, when people believed that the fruit's juice would dissolve any bones accidentally swallowed.